Sunday, July 25, 2010

Family tree painting finished

So, this was the original inspiration for the order I received for a family tree painting. This was my Christmas gift to my younger sister with the fabulous voice.And this painting I did for my living room was closer to what the customer wanted, more autumn colors and less of the cool blues. She also wanted a straighter, thicker tree, not so much red and to include orbs with the birthstone colors and names for 19 people. That's alot of colors to include in one design.

Several sketches and a bit of brainstorming later, I tried out several designs......

Hmmm, no. Very "haunted Halloween." But it would look great with a background of red and orange and some bats and a witch flying across the moon, and the branches could look more like a pair of bony hands.....but not for a family tree, lol!

Nice. I like this one alot better with the branch and twig detail and the central heart. With a little color tweaking this could be really good. But once I started laying out 18 orbs with all their bright colors, it became too busy too quickly and didn't work at all. Too bad! But if the family names were added in a nice, delicate script with no birthstone orbs, this could work very well.

So I struck off on a tangent with a different design, just to give myself some breathing room. I love the colors and the layout on this one, and the fat little birds can tweet out the family names in nice curvy script. I liked this one so much I added it to my Etsy shop. All it needs is the family names and it will be someone's custom family tree! And one thing this painting did give me was the better design for the final tree.

Midway in the project, the colors and design are coming together. There are lots of colors involved here, and I've also used some metallic paint for a bit of sheen. Per the original painting, now it's time to add lots of details and little fillips and of course, all those names including 3 sets of twins!

The family is pleased with the way this came out when it was unveiled at their reunion this week! It was a challenge to get everything balanced in this painting so that the many many details worked together for a pleasing whole. They like it, I like it and we are going to call it good! Now I'm going to work on one for our family, I'll show what that process looks like when it's done.

7 comments:

Ann it's beautiful!!! I love the colors and the way the tree turned out. This is really such a special piece of artwork. And it was really neat to see how it evolved and the great paintings you came up with along the way. I love it!

Ann, those turned out just beautiful! I LOVE the blue bird one and the very last especially - they are both stunning. I love the way the background colors blend into that circle behind the tree... just lovely.

About Me

I've always been creative and even my treatment and recovery from breast cancer has only slowed me down, not stopped me. At this time in my life I finally have my own craft studio where I can paint, sew, draw, crochet, design, quilt, you name it. I am creatively curious and I won't let my chemo stop me!